Why is everyone talking about the Korean TV series Squid Game?

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The combination of hardcore thriller and touching drama has captivated millions of viewers around the world.

The streaming service Netflix has been producing non-English-language series from different countries for several years. They become platform hits with enviable regularity. The German "Darkness", the Spanish "Paper House", the French "Lupine" acquired huge fanbases and received the highest praise from critics.

Now they are joined by the South Korean Squid Game. And in a strange way, at the start of the series did not produce the so-called effect of an exploding bomb. It was released on September 17, and in the early days there was not much talk about the project. However, at the time of this writing, The Squid Game has already become the most watched Netflix release in 90 countries, and may soon set an absolute record for views, overtaking the famous Bridgerton.

The show really deserves this popularity. Brutality and action are combined with the personal tragedies of the characters who have to make difficult choices. And the project is very cool.

The series has a completely unpredictable plot

Already in the first episodes, The Squid Game changes its tone several times. Initially, the viewer is introduced to the main character - Song Ki Hoon, mired in debt. To return a large sum to the bandits, he agrees to the stranger's offer to play a humiliating but profitable game. And then he invites Song Ki Hoon to a strange competition with a large cash prize.

And here the drama about the life of a poor man turns into a dystopia, similar to "Battle Royale". The hero finds himself among 456 people who participate in various children's competitions. But failure for everyone means death.

This setting immediately gives the "Squid Game" several advantages over other films and TV series about death matches. Firstly, here the heroes agree to the tests voluntarily: they can even end everything by a common decision. This, by the way, allows the authors to surprise the viewer once again and tell more about the characters.

Secondly, often in such stories they show one type of competition. Most often these are just fights, chases or shootouts (you can remember at least "The Hunger Games", at least "Cool Guns"). Here, each next task is different from the previous one. Therefore, neither the participants nor the audience can predict what will happen next. Sometimes the heroes will unite in teams, sometimes they will fight only for themselves. In some games, strength is important, in others - ingenuity, or even just luck.

And even more so it is impossible to guess how the season will end. Then it will become clear that prompts were given more than once, but nevertheless, the denouement will certainly surprise almost everyone.

Squid Game has ambiguous characters and deep drama

An even greater plus of the series is that the action is not focused on just one character. The audience is introduced to a whole team of interesting characters, and everyone can choose the one who seems closest and most interesting.

So, there is a longtime friend of the protagonist Cho Sang Woo, playing at number 218. He studied at a prestigious university, and everyone around him considers him the pride of a poor area. But he also turned out to be a failure and is ashamed to tell about it. There is also a defector from North Korea, number 67. She wants to make money to move her family, but so far she feels like a stranger and alone. An old man with a brain tumor is playing under the number 1. He just decided he didn't want to die just like that. Plus a Pakistani migrant, a violent bandit, a married couple and many other interesting participants.

The unhurried development of the action over nine episodes allows the writers to reveal almost every important character and helps the audience to attach to them. And therefore, by the middle of the season, you are already sincerely worried about each of them.

The Squid Game is built around the constant need for characters to make tough choices. To survive, they must unite and betray. Moreover, often the heroes themselves do not know in advance what their decision will lead to. And this is best revealed in the sixth episode: the doom of the situation literally brings you to tears.

Of course, the evil gangster number 101 seems like an outright scoundrel. But the actions of most of the other characters are quite understandable. And the thought involuntarily comes: how would you yourself act in such a situation? What's more important: winning or helping others? Is it worthy to give up after having come this far?

And here a thriller about a survival game turns into a good way to think about your own moral principles and values. This, by the way, makes Squid Game related to another unusual hit of Netflix - the film Platform. Both projects talk about preserving the human face in extreme circumstances.

It's also a very stylish project

Perhaps all the other virtues of the series would not have been captured so easily if it had not been so superbly staged.

The squid game is all about contrasts. This is reflected both in the plot and in the colors. Characters are not just given weapons or put in front of the creepy machines from the conventional "Saw". Participants go through children's games: "the quieter you go - the further you will be", classics, tug-of-war. And all the rooms in which the competition takes place resemble a dollhouse: as if the heroes were sent to a children's camp. Only doomed people have gathered here, and the loser is simply shot in the head.

Simple tracksuits with participant numbers are the opposite of security clothing. By the way, the design of the villains' red uniform is almost the most stylish since the days of jumpsuits in the "Paper House".

Various assumptions are made about the meaning of the symbols on the masks, for example, they resemble the icons on the PlayStation controller. But, most likely, these are letters in Hangul spelling. In this interpretation, the circle, triangle and square can be deciphered as O, J, M, which adds up to Ojingeo Geim - "Squid game" in Korean.

And there is also a theory that the game's attendants are recruited from the same random losers: it all depends on what color the candidate chooses the envelope. And in general, the abundance of mysterious symbols and innuendo leave a lot of room for the imagination of the audience, which also warms up interest.

Here, even the shooting and music are built on contrast: in ordinary life, the characters are pursued, if not dark and gloomy, then pale gray tones. Bright colors during games seem to hint at their chance to get into another, brighter world. Relaxing waltzes or children's melodies are played on the soundtrack. Which, of course, makes the on-screen violence even more impressive.

But the biggest advantage of The Squid Game is that the show, although tied in many ways to Korean culture, will be understandable in any country. The plot clearly shows criticism of capitalism: the poor have to commit cruel acts for the sake of earning money, and the rich watch it with pleasure. But at the same time, the project also reveals the personal drama of each individual hero. And to top it all off, it draws in with cruel scenes and unusual video sequences.